


Of Cafes, Mega Stones, and the Impending Apocalypse

by madridistagoblue



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Canonical Character Death, Drabble Collection, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-02-15 17:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2237418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madridistagoblue/pseuds/madridistagoblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble collection exploring the lives and the relationship of a world renowned pokemon professor and a brilliant, fiery man whose desire to change the world knows no moral bounds.<br/>Written primarily as drabbles on request via tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Magikarp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written as a three-sentence challenge for xensilverquill

"My father said it wasn't befitting of someone of royal birth…" Lysandre had said, in a cheap imitation of the elder man’s upper-class Kalosian accent, as he clutched the orange scaled pokemon tightly in his lanky, growing arms.

"But magikarp evolves into gyarados," Augustine had replied without missing a beat—he had been interested in studying evolution then, too, going through every book on the subject he could find in the library with Lysandre, memorizing evolutionary lines, and trying to stump his fiery-haired friend with the hardest questions when they would quiz each other—"even the dragon champions of the Indigo League train them." 

***

The moment had played and rewound itself in loops in his head as Augustine looked at the framed picture on his desk, trying in vain to fight a sudden sting in his eyes and the feeling that something was blocking his throat; and though, perhaps, the exact words of that conversation from so many years ago had become mere fabrications now, he still remembered Lysandre’s reply by heart (“I think any pokemon can obtain its potential if we nurture it’s beauty.”), and he couldn’t ever stop wondering how the man who could unlock that potential, who would see that magikarp evolve not only once, but twice, could fail to understand that what was true of pokemon could be true of humanity as well.


	2. Drunk Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written as a three-sentence challenge for lifeonvega

He could already tell that his foolish words (“I can handle my liquor, thank you”) were coming back to haunt him as he took the last sip of whatever toxic concoction Bryony had served him and immediately felt even lighter in the head. Or perhaps, this feeling — set strangely between illness and euphoria, two emotions Lysandre almost never registered— had more to do with the presence of a certain professor clutching at his suit coat with a coy smile, prattling incessantly, and not (as he always did) about megaevolution or the ancient legends of Kalos, but some incoherent mutter about have you ever wanted to…did you ever think maybe…I know I’ve had my affairs mon ami, but I’ve never really thought about amour…

Before Lysandre could think of a coherent response (because, for once, words were failing him, turning instead into a strange stream of consciousness about Augustine’s grey eyes—and since when was the professor Augustine?) the professor’s lips crashed into his own, the poor drunken fool’s tongue licking them in a pathetic attempt to penetrate into his mouth, and, for some reason that he could only blame on alcohol, the science of the brain, and his green haired scientist, he smiled ever so slightly, allowing Augustine Sycamore to continue the kiss and messily slobber on his chin — a fact that Lysandre may have minded if the sensation of the professor’s tongue gently gliding against his own hadn’t numbed his mind still further and made him wonder why the two of them — researchers, none the less — had never tried this experiment before.


	3. Shopping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for ryttu3k

"Sure you look fantastic, Lys, but I still remember those outfits you picked out for your grunts back in the day, they were hideous!" Sycamore complained as they walked down Vernal avenue towards the Boutique Couture.

"I’m not going to put you in bright red, Augustine,"  said Lysandre, reaching for his partner’s hand, apparently as a romantic gesture, but Augustine thought it more likely to speed him towards the high-class clothier. Like he was going to believe those words coming from the man currently wearing a red button down shirt! (Though it did fit him very well…especially underneath that sophisticated dark black trenchcoat…)

"Besides," Lysandre continued, cutting off Sycamore’s other thoughts, "I thought we agreed I wasn’t in the best state of mind during those years?" 

Augustine nodded, not wanting to relive the portions of his life when he spent each night anxiously questioning if it would be his last, had cried his sleepless body into a heavy drunken sleep believing Lysandre to be dead, or waited as Lysandre spent time in jail and psychiatric care, wondering if he’d ever be the same. Fortunately, somehow, it had almost been long enough that the occasional joke could cause no harm. Perhaps that was the power of love?

"I don’t understand why we need to do this  _now_  though, Lysandre!” the professor complained, “you’ve always told me that you loved me just the way I am, crocs and all.” 

"And I do," Lysandre replied, "but they’d do much better serving the poor people of Kalos and not on  _your feet_!”

"You can donate them — you asked me to find improved ways of creating a better world…" Lysandre chided, "though Arceus knows anyone wearing Crocs will  _never_ make a more  _beautiful_  world….Maybe we’d better recycle the rubber instead…” 

"But that’s not the point!" Sycamore complained, "you always let me wear them and my hats and my shorts and everything else you threw out of my closet and into a box before! What’s changed now?" 

Lysandre shook his head, his cheeks turning a hint of red, and the professor was not sure if this was a blush or a sign of frustration. 

"Augustine Sycamore," Lysandre berated the professor whose hand his still held. He tapped one finger gently against the metal band on Augustine’s ring finger. "My  _husband_  will look like a proper Kalosian and not like a middle-aged Unovan tourist on holiday!” 


	4. Cuddling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Xensilverquill

The large blue sea creature wrapped it body loosely around its owner, pressing its head up against his face and gently caressing his cheek with its anterior fins. Its owner, known for his stern and serious expression, closed his eyes and smiled, forgetting for a moment the papers stacked in order of most to least urgent across his desk. He leaned back against the spine of his chair, bringing a hand up to return the pokemon’s affections. The intimidating beast yawned, its fangs glistening in the sunlight streaming in from the adjacent window but posing no harm. It rested its oversized skull as best it could on a pillow of its owner’s long, spiked red hair; and, for a moment, the oft imposing duo formed a tableau of serenity.

Then, there was a knock on the door.

The man bolted upright, his eyes opened wide, and he immediately stared at the door in front of him.

"Lysandre," a woman’s voice called from the other side.

Lysandre cleared his throat, his arms scrambling to his side and his fingers fumbling around his belt. “One moment,” he called out, giving a stern look to his pokemon as his fingers continued to search for an object they could not find. 

"Damnit," Lysandre mumbled under his breath. "Where did I put my pokeballs?" He reached a hand out to open the drawer to his desk, but the pokemon gripped him tighter, shifting its head to once again nestle in his hair. 

"Not now!" Lysandre commanded harshly, still unable to move his arms in search of the containment device. 

"Lysandre, you ok in there?" the woman asked again, in a voice that, despite her words was not sympathetic. If Lysandre had to define it, it was almost mocking, in a playful sort of way. 

"Give me just a minute, Bryony," Lysandre called back, impatiently. 

"I thought you said you weren’t busy until five today," she replied, not willing to take no for an answer. 

"Gyarados, get down!" Lysandre commanded. The pokemon shook its head, having learned the Kalosian cultural symbol for "no." "This isn’t funny!" he shot back, more forcefully this time. 

"Oooh?" Bryony inquired, suddenly. "What’s not funny? I bet it’s very funny." 

Arceus damn it all she was NOT supposed to have heard that! 

"Come back in a minute please, Bryony," the boss ordered. 

"What’s wrong boss?" she taunted. 

Lysandre looked up at the pokemon again, then back towards the door. He supposed there was no reason he couldn’t meet with his data analyst while gyarados was out and about but this…this….cuddling. It was so…utterly embarrassing! He was Bryony’s boss, and she was not going to see him looking so unprofessional!

"Gyarados, I swear," Lysandre threatened, trying as hard as he could to make his voice inaudible from the outside, "if you do not let go this instant I’m going to…" 

Lysandre’s voice stopped as the pokemon looked at him with pleading eyes. His breath was held on the tip of his tongue, his sentence still dangling in midair. I’m going to…

Going to what? 

Lysandre sighed, looking into the eyes of the friend he had known the longest — someone who he had been able to turn to when he had no one to call a friend and it had no power to defend itself. Lysandre had long ceased to be under the control of his noble family, for even longer than gyarados has ceased to be a frail magikarp. And yet…somehow that bond had not diminished in the slightest. And Lysandre reckoned it never would. He couldn’t truly threaten gyarados, could he? The pokemon had called his bluff. 

But Lysandre’s reverie was cut short by a knock on the door, and Bryony’s voice chiding him once again. 

"Need help in there boss? Or am I just interrupting a special Holo Caster call with Professor—" 

"Fine, come in!" Lysandre yelled finally, before she could go spreading rumors across all of Lysandre Labs. He lowered his voice slightly before adding, "just shut the door quickly." 

Bryony cracked open the door and skidded her thin frame around the side. She had barely begun to close it when she burst out laughing at the sight of the giant sea pokemon entrapping her boss with its head nestled in his hair. 

Lysandre looked from Bryony, down to the pile of work, and up to his pokemon again. 

This was going to be a much longer meeting than intended.


	5. Morning Routine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for ryttu3k

It was just past noon when Lysandre felt the body next to him finally begin to stir. “Good morning, Augustine,” he said calmly, eyes fixated on his book as he felt the covers shift across his body. 

Augustine slumped over, his arm dropping across the redheaded man’s chest as he squinted his eyes in an attempt to see the clock. On the corner of the bedside table, he could see the outline of a neatly folded newspaper. Lysandre’s psychologist had recommended that he refrain from watching televised news (the combination of gloomy stories juxtaposed with harsh images might easily be too distressing) and moderate his exposure to periodicals. As such Lysandre had developed a routine to read the  _Lumiose Daily News_ for one hour in the morning to absorb his daily consumption of current affairs. Clearly, if Lysandre had moved on to his book, it must have already been quite late, Augustine thought. He tried to make out the bright green letters that looked like a foggy haze of stun spore. 

"Twelve fifteen" Lysandre said, reaching over towards the bedside table, his book still in his other hand. He plucked Augustine’s glasses from the table, and handed them to the lankier man beside him. 

Augustine shot up suddenly and snatched the spectacles out of his counterpart’s hand. “Lysandre!” he cried, unceremoniously shoving the glasses onto the bridge of his nose. “ _Pour l’amour de Arceus!_ I have to get to the lab!” 

A deep chuckle emerged from the former Team Flare boss as he continued to read. 

"It’s not funny! Or cute! Or whatever you think, this is my  _job_ , Lysandre!” Augustine chided, though he was too busy stumbling clumsily out of bed to shoot the man a look of anger. 

"Augustine," Lysandre said, still with far too much ease in his voice. 

"Not now, Lysandre" the professor called as he rummaged through the closet a threw a blue button-down shirt and a pair of red socks onto the bed. 

"It’s a  _holiday_ , Augustine,” Lysandre said more forcefully this time. The room became silent as a now half-undressed, profusely panicked Professor Sycamore looked back to see the faintest trace of a smile emerging on Lysandre’s lips. 


	6. A Dream Long Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for ryttu3k.   
> While most of these drabbles are based on the X and Y video games, this particular fic is set in the pokemon anime!verse.

“Lysandre?”

The redhead turned upon hearing his name, finding himself looking straight into a pair of concerned light blue eyes. 

“What is it, Alain?” he asked with a sigh. 

“I just wondered if you were alright, sir. Ever since I came back with news about the professor, you’ve been somewhat quiet. I wanted to make sure that if something was wrong, I could help.” 

“No, nothing is wrong,” Lysandre chuckled suddenly. His deep contented voice contrasted sharply with the cold and distant look that still overcame his eyes. “If anything…it is all too right.” He sighed. “It’s nothing to concern yourself with, Alain. Please, take a rest.” 

There was a moment’s pause as Alain continued to stare at the head of the laboratory, who waited patiently for him to take his leave. 

“You wish the professor could work with us, don’t you?” the younger trainer interjected finally. Lysandre snapped to attention, his gaze becoming threatening for a moment, before softening again. 

“It’s no use lying,” the redhead admitted. “I always believed he had the ability to mega evolve his pokemon. Yet he insisted that he didn’t have the strength. Back before the lab, before we worked together, Alain, I had plans – we had plans –. to unlock the secrets of mega evolution. Together. It’s strange to see him finally achieve his goal, but to know that what we once dreamed can never be.” He turned his eyes away from Alain, too proud to show the boy his weakness so straightforwardly. 

“It’s not too late…” Alain began. 

“–we discussed this,” Lysandre cut him off. His eyes once again returned to the boy, but this time they did not waver. His words were orders. Their meaning was definitive. 

“He must be protected,” Alain replied in an almost monotonous voice. The young trainer’s own blue eyes hardened as he nodded at Lysandre in recognition. “I understand.” He paused for a moment and turned his head momentarily towards the door. “I ought to go train. I will leave you for now, if I am no longer of need.” 

“Thank you for everything, Alain,” Lysandre responded and turned away. As soon as he heard the door shut, he buried his head in his hands, and shed tears for a dream long lost.


End file.
